10 Surprising Ways to Restore Our Oceans (and Our Seafood)

In a previous post, I wrote about Oceana, Ted Danson’s amazing book. He’s got a lot of great save-the-ocean tips in there for what you can do to keep our oceans clean, and help to protect the magical life beneath its surface. But I thought of 10 more ways that might surprise you, and which anyone can do even if you live far, far away from any ocean or sea.

# 1: Go fishing! And eat your local fish. Catch it yourself if you can. Or buy it (or trade for it) with a local fisherman. But before you do that, make sure your local water is clean (good luck with that). At least you’ll be getting personally acquainted with your local fish and what they need to thrive.

# 2: Take Wholemega fish capsules instead of eating fish. I have heard personally from Tom Newmark, Chairman of the Board of New Chapter vitamins, how sustainably and carefully the company collects its fish oil from wild-caught Alaskan salmon. I trust their fish oil. So can you.

# 3: Avoid plastics at all costs. OK. Plastic is made from petroleum. Oil harvesting is a major, major source of ocean pollution (and wastes oil on things we don’t need). Then we throw it out and it ends up in the ocean again. How stupid is that?! One more reason to be as plastic free as you can.

# 4: Only use sunscreen when absolutely necessary. There are lots of studies showing that the chemicals in sunscreen are not only bad for us, but they also kill coral reefs. If we don’t stop killing them, coral reefs may be destroyed in our lifetime. By only using small amounts of sunscreen, only when absolutely necessary, you keep chemicals out of the water, and you don’t contribute to the plastic-bottle pollution either.

#5: Buy fish-free pet food. Lots of good fish that would otherwise feed whales and dolphins—as well as wasted fish from inefficient harvesting—go toward making pet food. If you see “fish meal” on the label, don’t buy it!

#6: Enjoy Fishless Fridays! A lot of people I know eat fish on Fridays—it’s a holdover from when for some reason the Catholic Church said that you shouldn’t eat meat on Fridays. As a result, all across the country there are fish fries on Friday nights. Take a cue from Meatless Mondays (which I support), and try Fishless Fridays, which means you go veggie instead.

#7: Take your water sports off the grid. If you love being out on the water, do it oil free—sail, row, swim, surf! All of those are healthy, wonderful ways to enjoy the water without spoiling the water, the fish, or people’s hearing.

#8: Drive a hybrid, ride a bike, walk, or even better, ride a horse to wherever you are going. Again, oil is the major ocean polluter. And we’re running out of it. And the price of gas is only going to keep going up and up. Find alternative means of transportation and you’ll be saving money, saving gas, and keeping the oceans cleaner.

#9: Read Oceana. You won’t regret it.

#10: Demand Organic! (And buy organic.) Agricultural toxic-chemical runoff is, in addition to oil pollution, one of the biggest contributors to destroying the oceans. The only way to stop chemical companies from selling chemicals is for YOU to stop buying chemically grown food.

NOT EASY TO DO, BUT WE ARE CONTINUING TO TRY…
1) One we already do.
2) May try it, but we don’t take vitamins as a rule.
3) Don”t see how we can do this unless we buy a cow & learn to milk.
4) Another we already do.
5) Can do.
6) Family isn’t vegetarian, but do eat lots of veggies.
7) Owwww.
8) Can’t afford a hybrid yet and too old to walk far away to town
9) OK & I’ll let you know if I think it’s being real or radical.
10) We do this on all of our acreage and sometimes purchase organic.

Haven’t fished in a long, long time. No one wants to go with me (maybe they are trying to tell me something), so, I’ve knocked that in the head. I’ll stick to sustainably caught canned salmon and tuna.

I take omega 3 anyhow.

I’m slowly getting away from plastic.

I’ve stop using sunscreen, unless it is absolutely necessary. I cover myself with sun protecting clothing and large hats.

Only bought pet food with fish included only once. Never again. The dog didn’t like it and neither did I! Didn’t like the smell.

Most of my days are fishless already.

I only wade in the water now. Haven’t done any boating for a few years. When I lived in Florida, we stopped boating in certain areas because of the Manatees. They were being injured.

I try to walk a lot. Biking is ok for a certain distance. It can get dangerous where we live, to bike, although the county has put down new bike lanes on the roads where there were none before.

Will get the book and I always recommend buying organic foods to friends and family.

Great information and equally great advice. I am a consumer of the Wholemega already and I have noticed a wonderful difference in my body since moving up from taking simply cod liver oil (which I had been taking for 4 years +). Will read the book as soon as I can an am already participating in each and every other suggestion you made. BRAVA! We need more people to pay close attention to what you say for as we save the oceans, we save all life!

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By day I'm chairman and CEO of one of the largest independent publishers left in America. By night I'm simply M.O.M. (which stands for Mean Old Mom). I'm a writer, cook, organic enthusiast, romance novel lover, and major music fan who does yoga. Read more

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